Aggressive gar

[MonsterMinis]

I had my retics get nipped a few times during feeding ( feed the gar first floating food ect then feed sinking)

Also my big pair of tropical gar have killed and iir eaten small rays before at a previous owners tank, in my own they have not killed a tank-mates yet.

atm I do not keep gar/ray together but I do believe space and feeding routine can play a significant role in them working. Granted there are some gar that are simply that aggressive.

imo gators should never be housed w/ rays unless in VERY large enclosures ( ie outdoor pools/ponds ect) Tropicals and Cubans... then the smaller species.

 

[boogeyman]

Yeah I would always feed him first but he loves to eat so he would make his way to the bottom of the tank

 

[thatdudeoverthere21]

How big is the tropical gar? He sounds cool. My gar doesnt attack my teacups. They leave eachother alone. Im about to move the teacups in with my bigger gar so ill post back to this thread. And if you ever wanna sell that tropical gar if its a true tropical gar. Message me asap.

 

[boogeyman]

He's about 14' and I'm gonna keep him for now

 

[MonsterMinis]

If he's biting after feeding time.. imo I would keep him separated from rays then. Mine would only attack during feeding and changing the feeding regime fixed the issue. and in the pool the trops essentially ignored the rays but they had plenty of room to keep away.

on a side note I wonder if Trops eating rays in the wild is common. I know generally when gar attack and eat tank-mates its the day before feeding or they are kept on a light feeding routine. Or are kept in strict quarters ( on one hand good because the gar is less likely to hit a wall and break its back/face, but there is not "personal space" then.). I feed my fish fairly heavily compared to most it seems as well.

def interested in updates on how your fish does one way or the other.